WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After three days of online voting by more than 30,000 participants, 'rage bait' has been selected as the official Oxford Word of the Year 2025.
Oxford University Press said its language experts shortlisted three terms - rage bait, aura farming, and biohack - that reflect 'our conversations and preoccupations over the past year.'
After three days of voting in which more than 30,000 people had their say, the experts chose 'rage bait' after considering votes, the sentiment of public commentary, and their analysis of lexical data.
'Rage bait' is defined as 'online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content.'
'With 2025's news cycle dominated by social unrest, debates about the regulation of online content, and concerns over digital well-being, our experts noticed that the use of rage bait this year has evolved to signal a deeper shift in how we talk about attention-both how it is given and how it is sought after-engagement, and ethics online,' Oxford University Press said in a press release. The word has tripled in usage in the last 12 months, according to it.
'Rage bait' was first used online in a posting on Usenet in 2002 as a way to designate a particular type of driver reaction to being flashed at by another driver requesting to pass them, introducing the idea of deliberate agitation. The word then evolved into internet slang used to describe viral tweets, often to criticize entire networks of content that determine what is posted online, like platforms, creators, and trends.
'Rage bait' is a compound of the words 'rage', meaning 'a violent outburst of anger', and 'bait', 'an attractive morsel of food'. The word has a more specific focus on evoking anger, discord and polarization.
Speaking about this year's official pick, Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages, said: 'As technology and artificial intelligence become ever more embedded into our daily lives-from deepfake celebrities and AI-generated influencers to virtual companions and dating platforms-there's no denying that 2025 has been a year defined by questions around who we truly are; both online and offline'.
He added, 'The fact that the word rage bait exists and has seen such a dramatic surge in usage means we're increasingly aware of the manipulation tactics we can be drawn into online. Before, the internet was focused on grabbing our attention by sparking curiosity in exchange for clicks, but now we've seen a dramatic shift to it hijacking and influencing our emotions, and how we respond. It feels like the natural progression in an ongoing conversation about what it means to be human in a tech-driven world-and the extremes of online culture.'
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